There's value in white board interviews. Candidates can't cheat their way through them. I realised the value in them during the lockdowns when interviews went online and I found that a few candidates were cheating. Sadly the interviewer guidelines at the company I was working at that time, explicitly forbade me from writing anything about candidates cheating in the interview feedback, and instead required you to just "notify" the recruiter about it. The gradient of the falling hiring bar, only got steeper.
Also, the bit about puzzles, leetcode is somewhat of a myth, mostly perpetuated by salty candidates who couldn't pass tech interview loops, for whatever reason. Puzzles were explicitly banned at Meta and Google, when I worked there, and if a question is found on leetcode or a similar site (as they eventually do), they'd get banned too. The idea isn't to make candidates jump through a series of pointless hoops, but to concretely evaluate their coding and reasoning abilities. It's certainly not perfect, but it's a lot more BS proof that just having a chat or take home assignments. Also, needless to say, more senior candidates are expected to successfully grapple with harder problems.
>Sadly the interviewer guidelines at the company I was working at that time, explicitly forbade me from writing anything about candidates cheating in the interview feedback
The interviewer could have honestly made a mistake thinking the candidate cheated when the candidate did not. Or the candidate thought something was allowed but the interviewer did not communicate that it was not.
At any rate, there's a chance the accusation was wrong, and if you make wrong accusations and the other person disputes it, it could lead to unnecessary legal proceedings. (libel, etc.)
PS: not saying the company policy by the GP is necessarily correct, just saying what lawyers and risk adverse bureaucrats might be thinking when they drafted it.
Also, the bit about puzzles, leetcode is somewhat of a myth, mostly perpetuated by salty candidates who couldn't pass tech interview loops, for whatever reason. Puzzles were explicitly banned at Meta and Google, when I worked there, and if a question is found on leetcode or a similar site (as they eventually do), they'd get banned too. The idea isn't to make candidates jump through a series of pointless hoops, but to concretely evaluate their coding and reasoning abilities. It's certainly not perfect, but it's a lot more BS proof that just having a chat or take home assignments. Also, needless to say, more senior candidates are expected to successfully grapple with harder problems.